Monday, December 1, 2014

Or alternatively, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services… you had me at "Hello!"

OK, maybe not at "Hello." I was a bit weary after the last time our office had been rebranded (somewhat reluctantly) back in 2005, but as I had stated in a previous post, this transition went SO smoothly. So to revise my statement, you had me at the transition!

BHHS Swag goes nicely with my French Market Basket!

Part of what made it an amazing year has to be how it started with a transition that I would describe as positive energy that was welcoming, renewing and reigniting even! Now this may have been specific to my 2 offices, but our theme for the year was the Year of Happiness. On a larger scale, looking at our year, I think it was also a year of investment in our agents & offices.

People in town (as well as other agents) have asked me what it's been like, becoming BHHS. From my perspective, I saw big improvements in our technology, training & education, online leads, new agent support, and even office culture. Briefly, here's how:

The technology the company has introduced this year has been a tremendous help in making our transactions more seamless and our day to day work easier. There's been a learning curve, but they've offered so many training & education opportunities to help us through it. Honestly, I couldn't be happier about it.

Training & educational activities are more than plentiful, and we don't necessarily have to travel to our corporate offices for it. There's a mix of live classes, webinars, social media classes, tech and basics of real estate going on at all times. If you need help with something, they will get it for you.

I don't have to pay separately for my portal (like Realtor.com) leads and inquiries come directly to me now. I know some of the other big brokerages were already doing this and I'm happy we're now one of them.

Responding to Web Inquiries!

There's a formal Mentor program and our new agents aren't left to figure things out for themselves so much anymore - they're getting the full support they need through training and special weekly sessions with seasoned agents, plus the benefit of a mentor who works with them through transactions. Also, we have a really supportive office and pretty much every agent is willing to help new agents when they need it. (Just the other day a new agent was out showing houses and couldn't get a lockbox to open - 3 agents in the office (myself included) jumped up to drive over and help him. Now THAT's a supportive office! My office family rocks.

That brings me to the office culture. The biggest change I've seen is how much our office has GROWN since becoming Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. We've had so many more new agents joining us, and and they're succeeding! It's refreshing to have excited, hungry-for-business agents zipping around the office. Since becoming BHHS, we've also had some of the perks come back to the office, like office coffee, which had been taken away when we were Prudential (and believe me when I tell you that had NOT gone over very well!) Also, in what might be the best office news second to the return of coffee, our office is MOVING to a brand new construction site in 4 weeks, and it will be modern & open and in a mixed-use development. We're all SO excited about it!

Photo by Carl Guild, who is pictured with me below at the launch party.

We're also very engaged with the brand in a way that we weren't before. I think it's partially through social media marketing efforts both nationally and locally here in CT & RI, but it's on a whole new level than it was. Kudos to our social media directors, communications and PR teams. I had the honor of being a brand ambassador at our launch event and it was a blast.

So, a year later, and the public recognizes our brand. Personally, I'm proud of the brand and of our offices. Thanks to our many events and even social media, I feel connected to agents I didn't know before, and even to other BHHS offices across the country due to interacting with our REthink Council.

We're in a good place, and it just keeps getting better. Sincerest thanks to our leadership for bringing us here.